Dreamers Awaken
by jamileigh17
Summary: 4th in my series, last one for now...


Dreamers Awaken

**_Dreamers Awaken_**

  
  
  
  
  


Alex sat thinking on the edge of her bed. She had finally been released from the hospital, but she wasn't feeling great. She found that she was tired and when she walked, she stumbled slightly. Her thoughts were interrupted by a soft knock at her door. 

"Hey, Alex, are you ready to go?" Nick asked. Alex nodded carefully, and he came over and held her arm. 

Alex smiled at him, and said, "Thanks." She shut her eyes momentarily, and Nick looked at her concerned. 

You ok?" He asked, guiding her back down to the bed. She nodded, and opened her eyes. 

"Yes. I'm fine, thanks. Just stood up too fast, that's all." She told him, then stood up more carefully. They walked down the hall, and Nick pressed the button for the elevator. 

The silver doors parted, and Alex watched in horror as an old woman dressed in black lunged out at her, a knife gleaming in her upraised hand. 

"Alex?" she heard Nick's voice and felt his hand on her shoulder. She turned, and collapsed into his arms. 

* 

Nick paced back and forth in front of the examining table where Alex was laying, waiting for the doctor to come back from wherever he had gone. He heard footsteps behind him, and spun, prepared to attack anyone who seemed threatening. He relaxed as he recognized Derek. 

"What happened?" He asked curtly. 

"I don't know. We were waiting on the elevator, and she looked really spaced out, like she was having a vision. Then she turned around and collapsed into my arms. Frightened the hell out of me, that's for sure. The doctor went to get something or other." 

Derek nodded, as the doctor came back in. "So what's wrong with her?" he asked the man. 

"I don't know. There doesn't seem to be anything seriously wrong with her, but we'll run some more tests." The doctor replied, and he walked over to the bed. He pulled out a needle from his pocket, and began to put it to her arm. 

"What's that?" Nick interrupted the doctor's motion, glaring suspiciously at the syringe. 

"Relax, Mr. Boyle, it's just a sugar solution. I put a drop of her blood on a glucosometer and it showed that her blood sugar levels are very low. It's possible that is why she collapsed." The doctor explained calmly. Derek nodded and the doctor injected the murky solution into her arm. 

Derek pulled Nick out to the hallway. "Nick, I know you're worried about her, but let the doctor do his job." 

Nick looked askance at the older man. "I don't know him or his intentions. I will protect her, Derek. I would do the same for you, Rachel, or Kat." 

"I know. But sometimes you have to trust that not everyone in the world is out to get you." Derek smiled wanly, and went back into the room. 

* 

Meanwhile at the Corrigan house: 

"No, Kat, you cannot go to a Halloween party next week." Rachel told her daughter, who'd come home with an invitation to a party at her classmate Melissa's house. 

"Why not? Don't you trust me?" Kat whined, and her mother sat down at the dining room table, pulling a chair out next to her for Kat. 

She gestured at the table, and Kat sat down. "Of course I trust you, Kitty Kat. But how well do you know Melissa or any of the other girls that will be at that party?" 

"They're just normal kids, mom! Come on! Melissa has been in my class for the last 2 years. Everyone's gonna be there! Come on, please!" Kat pleaded. 

Her mother sighed, "Well, are her parents going to be there?" 

"Yes. Please!" Kat reiterated. 

"Ok, but under one condition. You have to clean your bedroom back up. It looks like a pigsty! " Rachel told her, and Kat jumped up. 

"Thanks mom! I'll go clean it right now!" she replied, and ran up the stairs. 

"I just hope I don't regret it later," Rachel muttered. 

Her imagination's version of everything that could happen was interrupted by her cell phone. "Rachel Corrigan." 

"Hey, Rachel, you need to come to the hospital. We were leaving and Alex fell unconscious." Nick hurriedly explained. 

"I'll be right there." she replied, and went to get Kat's jacket. "Kat!" she shouted upstairs, "Come on, we gotta go!" 

* 

Rachel rushed out of the elevator on the ICU floor, her tan jacket billowing around her. She caught sight of Derek standing right outside Alex's room, and rushed over to him. Kat followed calmly. Derek quickly filled her in on what had occurred. 

Kat listened trying to understand. {So Alex collapsed after she saw something. What did she see?} "Derek, any idea what Alex saw?" she asked quietly. 

Derek shook his head, "No." Kat looked in through the window at Alex's unconscious form. 

"Can I go in there?" she asked gently, and her mom nodded as she and Derek went to speak with the doctor, who had just come back with some more test results. Kat walked into the room, and stood a few feet away from the bed where Nick was watching Alex closely. "Into Alex's mind I go, to see what she saw that I may know. Safe and sound we'll both return, and the truth then be learned." She felt herself whirling and being sucked into Alex, as her body fell to the ground, unoccupied. 

* 

Nick heard a thud from behind him, and spun to see Kat lying on the floor. "Kat?" he ran over to the unconscious girl. He looked around, and spotted Rachel and Derek standing outside. "Rachel, Derek, come here, Now!" he shouted. 

The two ran in, followed by the doctor. Rachel saw her daughter immediately, and rushed over to her. "What happened?" 

"I don't know. I was looking at Alex, I didn't even know she'd come in, and I heard a thud. I turned and saw her laying there." He shook his head. 

"Kat, Kat, honey wake up." Rachel shook her daughter's shoulders. 

* 

Kat found herself standing in the castle's control room. Alex sat at the terminal, oblivious to Kat's presence. The young girl walked over to her friend. "Alex, come on. You have to come back with me." 

Alex turned and looked at Kat, her face tearstained. A knife poked out of her chest, just above the breastbone. "What are you doing here, Kat?" 

"I came here to help you. What happened?" Kat asked, pointing at the wound. 

"A woman attacked me and stabbed me." Alex began crying. "I was so scared, I couldn't even defend myself. I came here." 

"Alex, no one attacked you, at least not in the real world. Alex, take my hand, and we'll go back." 

Another Kat appeared, and ran over to Alex. "Alex, stop! That's not me!" Alex looked back and forth at both Kats. 

"Don't listen to her, Alex. She's not real. She's trying to trick you!" the first Kat told her, calmly. 

"She's the one who's not real. Come with me, Alex, please!" the second Kat pleaded. Alex looked at the two girls, confused and frightened. 

"Alex, trust me." "No, trust me" "Come with me!" "No, with me!" the girls voices merged in a cacophony of noise, each trying to persuade Alex to hold her hand. Alex pushed her hands over her ears, trying to drown out the voices. "ENOUGH!" she shouted, and the two girls fell silent. "OK, which one of you is the real Kat?" 

"I am!" both girls exclaimed simultaneously. 

Alex realized she wouldn't make any progress this way, then said, "Ok, one at a time." she pointed at the Kat who had just appeared, and asked, "How did you get here?" 

"It doesn't matter. We're loosing time." the second Kat figure told her. 

"I know how I got here, Alex. I did a spell, to find out what had happened and to get you back." The first Kat answered, and Alex looked at her. She smiled proudly, and said, "Now can we go? Everyone's really worried about you." 

Alex reached over and held Kat's hand tightly, as the world around them dissolved and spun. 

* 

"Kat, come on... I think she's waking up." Kat heard her mother's voice, and opened her eyes. "Kat, what happened?" 

She groaned as she sat up, "I'm ok, I just had to go for a moment." They looked at her confused. "I rescued Alex." 

"Ugh..." They turned to Alex. Derek walked over to her bedside. She looked up at him, and rasped, "It's ok, she's telling the truth." She felt cautiously at the area of her chest where the woman had stabbed her, and said, "That woman tried to kill me again." 

Kat had stood up, and came over. "Alex had seen the old woman, the one I had told you about. She stabbed her in the vision. Alex thought it was real, and passed out." She looked at Derek "We have to stop her, Derek. She won't stop until she kills Alex." 

* 

That evening, they released Alex and the group went back to the house. Derek and Nick went to the control room, while Rachel took Alex upstairs to her room. "Really, Rachel, I'm not tired." Alex whined, petulantly. 

"Tired or not, your body is still recovering and you need to sleep. Now, lay down and rest." Rachel ordered maternally. 

Alex lay down on her bed, "Fine, but I'm still not tired," she yawned. Rachel smiled at her friend, and pulled the blanket up to her shoulders. 

Kat stood behind her mom, and smiled at Alex. "Sleep tight, Alex." she laughed. Alex smiled wearily, and Kat and Rachel left, closing the door part way behind them. 

* 

Rachel went into the control room, pausing only momentarily for the retinal scan. The viewing screen showed the old woman. "So what have you found out?" she asked. 

"It turns out that she's been trying to destroy the Legacy for almost it's entire recorded existence. First recorded instance is around 200 bc. A young precept was killed by one of the old women of the village of Noscrat, Germany. They killed her and imprisoned her spirit in a box, but the box was lost around the turn of this century. It reappeared in the local museum two months ago, broken in half." Nick informed them. 

"I guess in all the confusion this wouldn't have thrown up a red flag in the legacy database." Rachel sighed. 

Suddenly a scream echoed out through the house. They ran out of the control room. Rachel's first thought was Kat, but then the scream came again, from Alex's bedroom. 

Derek and Nick bounded up the stairs, and Rachel followed behind. Derek threw open the door, to see Alex sitting erect in her bed, a look of total horror on her face. 

"Alex, what is it?" Derek asked, rushing over to enfold her in his arms. 

She sobbed and shivered against his body. She slowly gained control of her breathing again, and said, "It was that dream again, but I remember this time. God, where's Kat?" she exclaimed. 

Rachel looked around, frightened. "I think she went to the kitchen to get something to eat." The group rushed down the stairs, and skidded to a stop in the kitchen. 

The woman held Kat by the throat, a knife pressing into her tender skin. "Mom!" Kat whimpered, and the woman pressed the knife in harder. 

"Let her go" Rachel shouted, infuriated. 

"No. I will teach this _child_ to try to stop me!" the woman's form shifted and seemed to warp and mesh, the woman and demon at once, red scales blazing under her translucent skin. She pressed the knife into Kat's throat, and red jewels of blood spurted out. 

"NO!" Rachel shrieked, and made a shoving motion with her arms. The woman went flying out the open door. 

Nick and Derek chased her, guns drawn. Rachel rushed over to her daughter, who was gasping and bleeding on the floor. She grabbed a towel, and pressed it to Kat's throat. It was soaked through within moments, and Rachel grabbed more, all the while trying to assure her panicking daughter that she would be ok. 

* 

The woman's figure flew down the path. Nick shot at her, but the bullets just went through her. She laughed a wild, demented sound. They reached the cliffs, and the waves battered on the rocks below. "You cannot escape" Derek shouted over the roar of the surf. 

"Oh, but I can. Nothing can stop me!" The woman cackled. 

"But that's where you're wrong." Alex's voice came from behind the men, they turned to see her, disheveled and panting. "I know you for what you are. I know what you did, and I know how to defeat you. Eliannan Zimmersgaut, to the fires of Hell return, never again to walk this world. I banish you! Be GONE!" Alex yelled. 

The woman burst into flame, as horrific screams of thousands of voices of the damned issued from her writhing body. 

* 

Alex leaned against Derek, the strength she had shown moments before disappearing. "Come on," she said, "We have to help Kat." The trio ran back inside. 

Rachel was sitting on the floor, Kat's head on her lap. She had strapped an oxygen mask over her daughter's pale white face, streaked with blood. Piles of red blood soaked towels surrounded the pair. 

Derek took command, "Hand me the blood pressure cuff and some gauze." he ordered. Nick hurriedly did. He strapped the cuff around the girl's thin arm, and Nick inflated it as Derek pushed gauze into Kat's neck. "Hang on, Kat. It's ok." he whispered to the barely conscious girl. "Nick, go get the helicopter," he barked, lifting the girl up in his arms. Rachel sat there, stunned. Alex helped her friend up and guided her outside. 

* 

Rachel once again sat in the uncomfortable hospital chair, wringing her hands. A doctor came out, "Dr. Corrigan? Your daughter will be ok. She lost a lot of blood, but we managed to stop the bleeding and restore normal breathing, though right now she does have a breathing tube in. You probably made the difference putting the oxygen on. You do realize however, that the police will have to be called in on this?" 

"No need." David Royce came down the hall. He flashed his badge at the doctor, who went back into the ER. "I got your page. Is Kat alright?" 

Derek nodded, "She will be." 

"Good. What happened?" he asked, almost afraid of the response. 

Derek managed a weak laugh, "Which story do you want first, the real or the PR?" 

* 

A week later, Kat sat in her room writing in her book. She rubbed the bandage over her throat, and wrote, "I've spent more time in hospitals than I care to remember, but at least this time it all worked out good. When that woman grabbed me and put the knife to my throat, all I could think to do was warn Alex that she was there. It wouldn't matter if I had died, if I protected Alex. I had to try. Now I understand how Derek was thinking when he blew up the house, and that it wasn't really my fault. Everything happens for a reason, my involvement with Miranda, the explosion, the attack, everything. The challenge is seeing the reason in time to change the outcome. And I know that with help, in time I will be able to see the reasons behind everything. Until then, I must try my best. 

Until then..."   


For all that might yet be... [Back][1]

   [1]: http://jamileigh17.20m.com/index.html



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